night at 6:00 p.m. eastern. if you can't watch live, set your dvr. follow me on twitter @greta. i'm also on facebook. i put a lot of pictures and video from what's going on in iraq right now. "hardball" with chris matthews starts right now. o'reilly out. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. 21st century fox announced today that bill o'reilly, tv host and best selling author who has dominated political television for 21 years as the nis officia. it was reported o'reilly or fox had paid out for five cases of sexual harassment against the popular host for a total of $13 million. the women who made the allegations either worked for him or appeared on his show.

"new york times" accounted nearly 60 companies pulled their advertises from the o'reilly factor. o'reilly's future had been uncertain ever since the departure last summer of roger ailes over allegations against him of sexual harassment. allegations ailes has denied, fueling questions over the culture at fox news. 21st century fox released a statement today, quote, after a thorough and careful review of the allegations, the company and bill o'reilly have agreed that bill oh rile loi will not be returning to the fox news channel. in a statement late today, o'reilly himself said in part, it is tremendously disheartening that we part ways due to a completely -- due to completely unfounded claims, but that is the unfortunate reality many of us in the public eye will live with today. i will always look on my time at fox with great pride and the unprecedented success we aeverybody chooed and with deepest gratitude to all of my dedicated viewers. the murdoch family sent out an e-mail of their own saying, by ratings standards, bill o'reilly

is one of the most accomplished tv personalities in the history of cable news. in account fa, his success by many measure is indisputable. lastly, we want to underscore or consistent commit to fostering a work environment build on values of trust. michael schmidschmidt. and congresswoman bass. i want to get to the corp. ralth decision making involved here and the news value and importance. what's the political impact of the decision that at 8:00 eastern time, bill o'reilly will not be there? >> well, frankly, i mean just my own bias, i think it's a little bit of a relief because i think he was just a mouth piece for the trump administration. on the other hand, i also think it's another example of grassroots activity because a lot of people protested, and they were concerned about it. i'm sure trump didn't have a problem. as a matter of fact, he said so last week. i'm sure he didn't see what the

issue was considering his own history with sexual harassment and sexual assault. >> well, tell me about that because that just jumps at me. tell me about trump's history in that regard. >> well, i mean, i know that he gave him his good wishes a week ago and that he said he was a good man. and from his perspective, i'm sure the complaints, at least the ones that we've heard so far, you know, they d't compare to what trump was caught saying on video. and we know tt he has a long history with this. so i would imagine -- >> with what? i'm sorry. you're making an accusation. just clarify it. >> i am. >> what do you know that trump has done wrong regarding workplace situations, with woman, whatever. what do you know? >> well, you know, the famous video of him coming and talking about how because he was a celebrity, he could grab somebody anyplace he wanted to. you know, that is certainly an example, and all of the women that complained. we know women complained, a number of them did who were a part of celebrity apprentice.

we also know there were things that happened at "celebrity apprentice" that they suppressed and didn't allow to come forward. but there were enough women that came forward from "celebrity apprentice" that had specific complaints about him. and we know some of those lawsuits are pending. i don't know what will happen with them in the future. remember, he said that as soon as the campaign was over, he was going to sue the very women that had complaints about him. so i don't -- i would imagine he would find solidarity with o'reilly for two reasons. number one, he's not offended by his behavior. and, number two, o'reilly was a mouthpiece for the trump administration. >> fair enough. let's go to michael schmidt on this. you brought the story on the front page of your paper. 50 interviews, i remember reading. a big jump. a lot of words, a lot of information. it is interesting that after all the news that we've had about o'reilly over the last several years, all the stories about accusations and settlements and blah, blah, blah, what do you

think kicked it over this time? what made it happen this time? >> i think the difference here was that they brought in paul weiss, this outside law firm, to look into these accusations. >> like they did with -- >> like they did with ailes. when they did that with ailes over the summer, they just kept the investigation on ailes. they didn't want it to go any broader than that. what happens here is they bring paul weiss back in. they start looking at these accusations and they start kicking up things and they see there's some real validity to it. the thing that doesn't make sense is everything we wrote in our story, fox had known for many months. so it wasn't really news. >> what broke it then? why now? >> so was there more stuff that came in that they realized that they couldn't survive if these things came out? >> why did oh really make it a joint statement? why did he say he and them agreed? >> i don't know. he hasn't said anything and fox hasn't said anything. that's the whole thing about this. the murdochs haven't explained themselves in any of this. they haven't explained why they stood by o'reillat the time of our story and then days after

it, when they had gotten rid of ailes for similar things, and, you know, why is it now? we know that this law firm found more things. we also know he lost a lot of advertisers. you have an 8:00 hour that has like less than ten ads, you know, running during it. i think that was a real problem for them. >> gabe, you've been all over this story too. let me ask you about this because it seems to me that if you're really cynical, people will say, oh, corporations never make decisions against their economic interests. so how did they weigh this? i know that in the short run, they're losing ratings. they may be able to make it up with tucker. tucker carlson is going to replace him. he's had a good run at 9:00, but they'll probably lose ratings in the short run. they'll probably have to do a big payout with o'reilly. so short term, money goes out the cash register. it's just going out. how do they make a calculation that in the long run, they're better off? how do they make that? do you know? >> it's a great question, chris. i think you have to look at this in a much larger context. while bill o'reilly earned millions of dollars for the fox

news channel, and, yes, they will have to pay him millions of dollars to walk away, there's on the other side of the ledger there is the possibility of billions of dollars on the table because 21st century fox, the parent company of fox news, is in the process of acquiring the rest of european pay tv sky. and now this $14 billion deal, one of the things that critics of this deal in europe and in london have been doing has been saying that this bill o'reilly scandal is another example of how the murdochs are not fit and proper to own media properties. so what my sources say inside the company is that one of the motivating factors for accelerating o'reilly's exit is the pending deal and the deadline next month for the british media regulator to rule on whether the murdochs can acquire sky. >> you know, it's interesting, gabe, and mike, i've watched murdoch for years. the old corporate strategy -- let me go back to the congresswoman now. the old corporate strategy of murdoch was go to the right. take over the times of london,

whatever it is, go to the right, and go down market. you know, a little trashy. i wonder if mr. murdoch is trying to avoid that image anymore because certainly "the wall street journal" is not going downll. it's a hell of a paper, so right wing on the op-ed side, but it's a hell of a newspaper. what do you think is going on? do you think it's a guy, murdoch and his age says i'm not going to go out of this world looking like this? i'm going to clean up my act. it could be. >> it also might be the influence of his sons, too, because i know there was differences there. and i also know that they different with their father on a number of issues. they differed with him over ailes. you know, one of them is open to the environment. i think one of his daughter-in-laws even works or is involved in an environment organization. so i think moving forward it's going to be very interesting to see how they assert their leadership and what differences we might see. you know, the other thing that they differed with the trump administration on was the muslim ban. they did a letter to their employees essentially saying that we embrace immigrants.

if any of you have problems, please see the h.r. department. so maybe we'll see some separation there. it would be nice. >> let me ask you about the conditions. have you any idea? both you guys are, but reading the piece you did i think was the powder keg here. is he going to get to say good-bye? we've been through a lot of this on television. they always want to have that last minute they can talk to their viewers, and the companies, it's almost like get your box of stuff and walk out the door. security is going to help you, those kind of things. is he going to get that kind of departure where they grab his stuff and throw it out the door, or he's going to be able to say good-bye? >> i find it hard to believe that fox would allow him to come back and go on the air. there's been a huge backlash, and if they were to do that, then, you know, it wouldust be putting him out the, resurrecting the issue. it just keepst going. >> are they afraid of a howard

biel moment where you get out and speak your heart and it doesn't look good for the corporation? >> chris, i've reported on this. this is one of the issues on the take in the negotiations with o'reilly's camp. he wanted to say good-bye. fox was holding firm. i've been told that he will not say good-bye. they have put in his replacement, tucker carlson, who will debut at 8:00 on monday, april 24th, which was supposed to be bill o'reilly's first day back from vacation. so, no, they are not going to give him a soft landing and a sign-off to say good-bye to his audience. >> what do you think the impact is over there in terms of rescrambling the deck. apparently the 5:00 gang is going to come on at 9:00, but it's not as strong a lineup. let's be honest. nobody thinks it is. it's hard to beat the lineup of o'reilly and megyn kelly. >> i've been talking to people inside the network all day and i'm hearing there's tremendous anxiety because one of the down side of roger ailes' success in building this fox news machine over 20 years is that while he had talent like bill o'reilly and sean hannity in place, he did not develop a bench of

people that could slide in and replace these icons of cable news. so now we're seeing the post-roger ailes era where they don't have people to turn to, and they are really making this up as they go along. >> yeah. who knows here? i don't think the congresswoman knows it because i don't know it. but you guys are media experts. is there a chance for him to start his own sort of network somewhere else? >> he has a huge following. >> can he do something like glenn ck does, weather that is? >> the ratings were good and they continued to be good after our story. so if you're sinclair radio or you're conservative talk radio -- >> he wasn't good on radio. he's great on television, not good on radio. >> he has a following that kept on watching him even after these accusations came out. >> gabe, do you think he'd make it on radio? just like, you know, limbaugh wasn't any good on television even though roger ailes was the executive producer. some people can only make it on one medium. i hate to say it but hannity can do it on both. >> he did try to make it as a

talk radio host. it didn't quite work. he didn't develop the audience. the real question, and we don't know this -- at least i don't know this at this point -- is what are the terms of his exit package in terms of a non-compete. i imagine if they were going to pay him upwards of 20, $45 million to leave, there would be some non-compete provision that would prevent him from starting his own network. >> i wouldn't be surprised to see him come back in time, though. he also has his whole book business as well. >> thank you. he's got three on "the new york times" best-seller list right now, which is something else. he's not going to starve. thank you, gabe. you're doing great reporting. michael, you're the guy. this is yours. you get pulitzers for this stuff? i'm just kidding. you'll get your own anyway. congresswoman, karen bass, thank you so much. coming up, a lot more on o'reilly's ouster. trump even stood up for him two weeks ago, but tonight o'reilly is out.

plus the russian connection. we're learning more aut why trump's foreign policy adviser, carter page, came under investigation by the fbi for his contacts with russia. we also now know that devin nunes's stunt, the midnight ride i call it, was just that, a stunt. and lawmakers on both sides say former obama national security adviser susan rice did nothing wrong. nada. it turns out that aircraft carrier that trump was said was headed toward north korea was actually heated in the opposite direction. he called it a powerful armada but it wasn't anywhere near korea, finally let me finish tonight with bill o'reilly. this is "hardball" where the action is. ., finally let me fin tonight with bill o'reilly. this is "hardball" where the action is. , finally let me fini with bill o'reilly. this is "hardball" where the action is. finally let me finis with bill o'reilly. this is "hardball" where the action is. finally let me finish with bill o'reilly. this is "hardball" where the action is. whoa, this thing is crazy.

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comcast business is different. ♪ ♪ we deliver super-fast internet with speeds of 250 megabits per second across our entire network, to more companies, in more locations, than centurylink. we do business where you do business. ♪ ♪ welcome back to "hardball." bill o'reilly has been the face on fox news since it started back in 1996 and the network was built on his popularity, his no nonsense, in your face style drew nearly 3 million viewers a night. in the days after that, "new york times" published the story about sex and harassment allegations, his audience ballooned to 3.7 million viewers. o'reilly's attorney said his client has been, quote, subjected to a brutal campaign of character assassination that is unprecedented in

post-mccarthyist america. is everything about joe marthy and hitler these days? anyway, with the exit of bill o'reilly, the white working class viewer is losing its staunchest voice. while president trump has long been an outspoken video, when the allegations were reported, trump told the times he's a good person. i think he may, you know -- i think he shouldn't have settled. personally, i think he shouldn't have settled. he said it twice. i don't think bill would do anything wrong. and back in april of 2016, the president tweets, why does the liberal media think bill o'reilly is a complete and total vulgarian. i'm joined by republican strategist john brabender and ruth marcus. i like both of you. let's hear how this goes. let's try to ice lay the success of the guy. let's face it. in our business it's run to a large extent by the cash register and ratings.

if you get a good rating, a lot is put to the side. in his case, they stopped putting it to the side, but he had ratings. what was his reason for getting a great 8:00 at night -- by the way, i know this because my colleagues have to put their shows on against popular entertainment. i'm in sort of the news hour. i have to compete with shows, you know, novelty shows. he has to beat interesting prime time programming to get his regular guy audience. >> look, his ratings were huge, and people can't underestimate how important this was that fox news had to get rid of him because he was there franchise in a lot of ways. but he was what you want from a host like this as you know sometimes. if you're very divisive and you're willing to stick it in the eye of the man, which he was willing to do -- there was a lot of people saying give them hell. go for this. >> they tend to be men, ruth. they tend to be big egos, strong willed. look at scarborough. he's unbelievable. he's big. he's very big. oberman is big.

this guys big. what's his name is big. what's the guy there in the daytime? >> are you saying a short woman doesn't have a future in television? >> i'm saying the big personality. >> it wasn't just big personality. >> rachel is doing great too, but we'll get to rachel in a minute. that's a unique personality. >> and smart. and o'reilly had smarts, but he also had -- i hate to talk about somebody in the past tense, but at fox. he spoke in a way that really resonated with the viewers, with the fox viewers. he was able to tap into an anger, a resentment, unhappiness with political correctness. to me, it's very much on a par with the same things that trump was able to so capably tap into. >> he looks more like his vie r viewer, though, than trump. that guy, sort of a ticked off irish guy. you know, he's made a few bucks but he's still not in the right country clubs as far as he's

concerned. a little ticked off about the social elite. he didn't particularly like carly simon and carole king. he's not into stries duraand. >> he didn't create the audience. it turned out the audience was there and he tapped into the audience. >> how did he find them? >> i think they were the silent majority, and they've been angry at washington. they feel like the -- >> are they reagan democrats? >> i think they're democrat and republican. they were mad at both parties and then o'reilly came and tapped into that. trp tapped into those same people and they showed up and ted. >> here's my theory about left and right. the left resents wealth at the top they don't think is deserving. there's resentment on both sides. >> i think that's right. i think how you make money sometimes does matter. did you game the system? i will tell you this audience -- >> nobody likes people that make money with money. but then again they -- >> his audience hated hillary

clinton. why? not because she was married to bill clinton but they thought she gamed the system. >> you think that's the reason? >> i think that was a big part of it. they felt nobody was -- >> we could do hillary hatred till the end of time. it's bill o'reilly love. >> explain it. >> like i was saying, trump love but also we're forgetting another major political cultural phenomenon here, rush limb baug tapping into -- >> big ego. >> it's a big ego, but people who are willing to say things that maybe you thought in the back of your mind, and you stopped yourself from saying it. maybe in the bar, but you said it to your wife at home. these guys are really -- >> he talks for three straight hours every day. no guests. three straight hours of rush limbaugh. that takes a real ego. i mean i've got three hours of stuff you don't know worth hearing. that's an incredible statement. >> you're right. the thing that trump and o'reilly have in common is we

might have a think bubble, but theirs comes out of their mouth and people like that. they're authentic. i would argue if trump decided he wanted to be a talk show host, ery network including this one would be out to get him. >> it would be a very short show though. he tweets. for years, o'reilly's uncompromising attitude had long made him a lightning rod for critics. most notable was his 2010 appearance on abc's the view. in a heated debate over a proposed islamic community center -- remember that hot fight -- in downtown new york, o'reilly managed to outrage his host when he said this about the 9/11 hijackers. >> let me break this tao. 70% of americans don't want that mosque down there, so don't give me the we business. you want to bet on that? i'll show you that poll in a minute. >> why is that? then why aren't we saying -- >> because it's inappropriate. >> why is it inappropriate? >> they killed us on 9/11.

>> oh, my god. >> muslims didn't kill us on 9/11? i'm telling you, 70% of the country -- >> i don't want to sit here. i don't. >> go. you're outraged about muslims killing us on 9/11. [ applause snshlgs. >> i think we can use that on the polarization of america right there. joy behar and whoopie got up and left. >> it also underscores my point about political correctness. i was amazed during the primaries going out and talking to republican voters how much that issue really resonated with them. >> what do they want to be able to say they're not allowed to? >> things like that. i don't want the islamic center down the street from me. i'm worried about these people coming into my country. i don't like it when the person i'm talking to on the other end of the line when i call the help center doesn't speak english. >> those are small potatoes, those things.

>> it rankles. it rankles. >> brabender? >> i'm sure they said to o'reilly, don't go on there. it was a brilliant move for him to go on there for his audience. >> you can make friends on both sides of that fight. john brabender, ruth marcus, you guys aren't as vicious as that seen was. coming up, new developments in the investigation into trump campaign ties with russia. the big story this year is trump and the russians. we're going to keep following it. this is "hardball," where the action is. hey, the future, what's her problem? apparently, i kept her up all night. she said the future freaks her out. how come no one likes me, jim? intel does! just think of everything intel's doing right now with artificial intelligence. and pretty soon ai is going to help executives like her see trends to stay ahead of her competition. no more sleepless nights. - we're going to be friends! - i'm sorry about this. don't be embarrassed of me, jim. i'm getting excited about this! we know the future. we're going to be friends! because we're building it.

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i'm milissa rehberger. former nfl star aaron hernandez was found dead in his jail cell. hernandez was serving life in prison for murder. officials say he hung himself with a bed sheet. in venezuela, mass protest against the president. the country is in major recession with shortages of food and medicine despite having the world's largest oil reserves. and a spokesman for former president george h.w. bush says his spirits are high as he remains under watch as a houston hospital for pneumonia. back to "hardball." welcome back to "hardball." during the campaign, donald trump said he wanted to improve relations with russia. as recently as last week he was still pushing that loin. quote, things will work out fine between the usa and russia. at the right time, everyone will come to their senses and there

will be lasting peace. sounds really good, doesn't it? according to "the washington post" today, in his devotion to this outcome, trump appears increasingly isolated within his own administration. here's what some of his top aides have been saying about russia very recently. >> time and time again, russia uses the same false narrative to deflect attention from their allies in damascus. how many more children have to die before russia cares? >> clearly they've been incompetent and perhaps they've just simply been out maneuvered by the syrians. >> russia's support for that kind of horrible regime that is a party to that kind of a conflict is something that has to be drawn into question as well as russia's subversive actions in europe. >> this is a man for whom veracity doesn't translate into english. >> meanwhile the russian investigation goes on. today the house intel

committee's ranking member, adam schiff, said the investigation is back on track. another democrat on that house committee, mike quigley, recently traveled to cypress. remember paul manafort reportedly had bank accounts over there. cnn reported yesterday the fbi used that infamous dossier as part of the justification to monitor former trump aide carter page. according to cnn, officials familiar with the process say even if the application to monitor page included information from the dossier, it would only be after the fbi itself had corroborated the information through its own investigation. the officials would not say what or how much was corroborated. for more on this, i'm joined by nbc news national security reporter ken dill anian, and grek miller, who wrote the story about the divide between the president and his aides had russia. greg, thank you for joining us. i read that piece this morning. i have to say, there is something interesting. i think the pattern that trump was on, he's still on. he's still, if not in a bromance

with putin, he defitely wants to get there. and the other people around him with tillerson and the rest of them are all traditional neocold warriors. they don't like the russians and say so. including nikki haley. >> absolutely. i think one of the interesting dynamics here is they increasingly feel emboldened to say so. they are not getting reined in when they go out here and say the things you just showed in all those clips. what does that say about what is the real policy in this administration? that leaves a lot of -- >> who makes the policy? >> that's a lot of condpufusion right? i think that's an unanswered question right now. . >> the way it used to be under regular administrations was it wasn't the ambassadors that set foreign policy to their countries. it was the assistant secretaries of state, people working for tillerson, but they would report back to the nsc specialist for that region in that country. so the nsc under mcmaster should be setting policy for what the

white house says. is that the case now is there a central authority on foreign policy? >> it looks increasingly like mcmaster has a lot more control now than obviously his predecessor or anyone else frankly in this administration although there's still a lot of question. i think one of the questions is sort of so these -- so, you know, his defenders, trump's defenders will say, look, this all makes sense. what he says is designed to preserve some sort of strategic optio options. on the other hand, his people, his national security team, is having to now try to explain why the president isn't on the same page. why doesn't he reinforce their message? >> okay. ken dilanian, if i were an expert on america, somewhere else in the world would have a hard time figuring out who we are. let's go back to this investigation which you've been on to. there's clearly an fbi investigation with a strong commitment of personnel. we heard 20 special agents.

everybody's going to do it. they're going to get to a conclusion. trump all through the campaign was pro-russian. the people around him were going back and forth to russia. certainly all the footprints as well as finger prints were on russia. now the people are all scattering. what fits here? does he fit what he was doing during the campaign, playing footsie with russia? >> he was the most pro-russian presidential candidate in modern political history, republican or democrat, certainly deviating from the republican orthodoxy, and you have this series of unexplained contacts between some of his associates and rush jz. now we're seeing the investigation unfold. you mentions mike quigley going to cypress. that was fascinating. here's a congressman from chicago, a democrat, going to investigate russian money laundering in cypress. and adam schiff saying, look, this investigation is back on track. we thought it had been completely sidetracked by the whole devin nunes affair, but -- >> this guy, the chairman of the house intelligence committee, who is supposed to be non-partisan in his behavior, in

conduct on that committee, goes over to the west wing one night, actually goes to eob next door, and he claims to have gotten some interesting stuff. the next day he brings it back to the white house to give to the people who gave it to him. it turns out what he had was something on susan rice, and it turns out all the investigations, she's done nothing wrong. she didn't unmask anybody. all this is b.s. >> well -- >> isn't that the conclusion we have here? >> it's certainly the case there's no evidence she did anything wrong. it's part of her job to request the unmasking. she doesn't mak tt decision, though. th nsa director, the fbi direct, e pers who owns the information would decide. i've spoken to people who have gone over to the nsa and reviewed the documents that were the basis of nunes claims and they have said, i've seen nothing but routine surveillance. >> all this distraction, this clever distraction by the trump people, still leaves us with an investigation of russia. >> well, piggybacking on what ken is saying there, weirdly the complexity of this nunes matter

and the unmasking stuff appplayo the white house's political advantage. >> but he's dead. they destroyed this guy. >> how routine it is because that just gets lost. >> what happens to nunes? he's dead. >> exactly. this is where you wonder whether the white house really messed up because you would have thought they would like to have nunes running that investigation through the end, right? somebody they could trust, somebody who was part of their transition in charge of one of two congressional investigations into what happened with russia. that would have seemed to have been a convenient thing for the white house, and that's gone now. >> it was the queen's sacrifice. reuters today reported that a russian government think tank controlled by vladimir putin developed a plan to swing the 2016 u.s. presidential election to donald trump and undermine voters' faith in the american electoral system. the paper put out by that think tank recommended launching a propaganda campaign and intensifying its messaging about voter trump. today adam schiff explains why he believed his committee's

investigation into russian interference is important. let's watch him. >> i think the broader context is this. we're in a new war of ideas globally. it's not communism versus capitalism anymore, but it is authoritarianism and oughtocracy against democracy and representative government. if you looked objectively at what's happening around the world right now, you'd have to say the autocrats are on the march. in a real respect, i think the health and fate of liberal democracy is at risk, and i view what the russians did in our election as very much a part of that struggle. >> let me go -- this who question, ken, that is this. what do you make of this think piece coming out of a think tank over in moscow, in fact run by putin. is this something to do with what they did to help trump win, or is this something that was parallel to that? >> i've been speaking to my sources and the consensus is this was considered the

kremlin's think tank. and the playbook that was described in that reuters story is very much the play bhook that we saw happen. fake news, interference, hacking. so, you know, but nbc news has reported that vladimir putin was running that show and may have been personally involved in how to use the information. that's the bottom line. >> greg, do you see these connected or just interesting parallels here? >> it's another -- you know, we just get more and more data to just sort of continues -- an accretion of information that just, you know, leads to no other conclusion than that russia was out to interfere in this election, but beyond that, to try to help trump win. so i think i've heard similar to what ken has heard. this reflects russian thinking. whether this was an actual blueprint for that strategy may be less likely. >> well, the fbi should figure that one out. thank you, ken. thank you, greg. up next, why did president trump say a powerful armada was heading to confront north korea

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the united states of america will always seek peace. but under president trump, the shield stands guard, and the sword stands ready. >> wow. anyway, welcome back to "hardball." that was michael pence, of course the vice president. another shot at north korea today, vice president mike pence warned that america's sword stands ready. it comes after the administration announced nearly two weeks ago that an aircraft carrier -- i know this one -- the "uss carl vinson" was being deployed to the region to deter north korea from further provocations. we now know, however, that didn't actually happen. but for over a week, top officials including the president had indicated -- actually said that the carl vinson was on its way to korea. let's watch him.

>> she's on her way up there because that's where we thought it was most prudent to have her at this time. >> why the strike force to the korean peninsula? >>le with, it's prudent to do it, isn't it? north korea has been engaged in a pattern of provocative behavior. >> you directed navy ships to go toward the korea peninsula. what are we doing right now in terms of north korea? >> you never know, do you? you never know. >> that's all you're going to say? >> i don't want to talk about. we are sending an armada, very powerful. >> an armada. the armada didn't do too well when it went to england that time. as of april th when the deployment was announced, the carrr was leaving port in singapore on a totally different route. photos over the weekend showed instead of steaming toward the korean peninsula, the carrier was proceeding south in the absolute opposite direction. now according to the pentagon, the carrier is finally turning course and heading north to the -- there it is. changing course to the western

pacific and up to north asia. anyway, according to "the new york times," with mr. trump himself playing up the show of force, pentagon officials said rolling back the story became difficult. i'll say it was. i'm joined now by the roundtable, jay newton small, mckay cobbens, and jennifer rubin. jennifer, why are they saying stuff that isn't true? why are they saying we've got a carrier headed to north asia when it was headed to singapore in a totally different direction? >> this is the kind of stuff trump got away with during the campaign. making stuff up. >> wasn't hillary attacked for saying she was attacked? >> there you go. this is the kind of ludicrous stuff that just doesn't compute when you're actually the commander in chief. and why it was that the pentagon didn't -- >> why did they all double down and triple down and all agreeing the ship was headed toward north asia. it wasn't. >> exactly. >> it's not an armada. it's a ship going in the other direction. >> this is the kind of thing when president trump called us, "time" magazine, and the bureau

chief to say, hey, i don't get enough credit for telling the truth. one of the examples he gave was the example where he said there was going to be violence in the streets in sweden, and there was a couple of days later violence in the streets of sweden. it doesn't really matter if that sort of was like esp. as long as it sort of is true in their minds, eventually the armada is going there. it's going to take a detour but it's on its way, that sort of counts, right? >> no, it doesn't. >> if you read that new york times story that goes through the chronology of how everything got bungled basically and went wrong, i'm struck by the sort of deep-level incompetence. the thing is about it is that it's almost funny if it wasn't real life and the stakes weren't so high because it does actually matter if our allies and adversaries, whether they can trust when the president of the united states says, i'm sending an aircraft carrier into the sea of japan. they need to know that -- they need to be able to take him at his word. >> well, there's a chain of command. we've been altogethl through th

kids. fail safe and all these movies about the armageddon day and what will happen and who's going to make the call. who's got the football and what are the codes? all this stuff is important in the nuclear age. the commander in chief be in complete control of the military. >> this is something that he really dinged president obama on is when president obama didn't go bomb syria after crossing the red line, he didn't have a show of strength -- >> if he wanted to, he would have. >> everyone in the rest of the world said we're weak, we're not going to do this. if we don't send an aircraft carrier group where we say -- >> you think trump knew he was lying? that's my question. >> what did you make of that little cover he did where he said i'm not telling maria bartiromo what i'm up to. >> he says these nonsensical things when he doesn't know what to say. but to mckay's point, what i'm concerned about is i don't think they really do have an answer to theorth korea point. everyone is talking really big now. nikki haley is talking tha way. pence is talking that way. when pence actually sat down and talked to my colleague at the

post, josh roggin, it was clear they really didn't have a plan. and i don't know what they think they're doing. someone better sit down and say, listen, it's great to have all these generals, very professional, great guys, but we need a policy to go around it. you can't just send ships out and then things goep away. you have to have a game plan. >> have to have an end game. >> that guy has this little button up in pyongyang. >> the amazing thing right now is the most predictable person in all of asia is xi because you've got a weak japan, a weak south korea. you've got north korea doing i don't know what. the u.s. isn't really sure what we're doing. >> you're talking about the president -- >> premier of china. >> i kept thinking of elvis costello's song. just kidding. the roundtable is sticking with us. up next, these three will tell me something i don't know. be right back.

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and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis. bp developed new, industry-leading software to monitor drilling operations in real-time, so our engineers can solve problems with the most precise data at their fingertips. because safety is never being satisfied. and always working to be better. president trump welcomed the super bowl champion new england patriots today to the white house. the patriots won their fifth title in 16 seasons with the biggest comeback in nfl playoff history. down 25 points in the third quar quarter, they roared back to win the game. the parallels were too much for the president to ignore. >> with your backs against the wall and the pundits -- good old pundits. boy, they're wrong a lot, aren't they? saying you couldn't do it, the

game was over, you pulled off thereatest super bowl comeback ofll time. one of the greatest comebks of all time, but the greatest super bowl comeback of all time. and that was just special. >> anyway, several members of the team skipped the meeting today, citing political differences with president trump. you can see the bigger crowd the last time the patriots came to the white house back in 2015. there they are. that's the picture on the top versus the picture from today on the bottom. much more scant. we'll be right back after this. ♪ ♪ i'm dr. kelsey mcneely and some day you might be calling me an energy farmer. ♪ energy lives here.

my insurance rates are but dad, you've got... ...allstate. with accident forgiveness they guarantee your rates won't go up just because of an accident. smart kid. indeed. it's good to be in, good hands. we're back with the "hardball" roundtable. jay newton small, tell me something i don't know. >> well, we have mid term elections coming up in 2018. and former vice presidential nominee tim kaine, who was hillary clinton's running mate last time is up. and apparently the republican party of virginia thinks he's actually really weak because they are trying to recruit carly fiorina, who last ran for obviously president in 2016.

>> i'm betting on kaine big. >> they believe kaine is weak because he softened his positions on guns and abortion, and -- >> so they go offafter ossoff because he lives ten minutes from the district and she lives 3,000 miles away. >> no. she has a house in virginia. >> i thought she ran for senator for california recently. >> she did. then she moved. >> there's new today utah congressman jason chaffetz announced he wouldn't seek re-election. he's faced a lot of opposition for -- >> his father is kitty dukakis' first husband. >> i got an early look at a poll that will come out tomorrow commissioned by the centrist project that shows more upheaval in utah politics. senator orrin hatch, according to this poll, seven out of ten utahans do not want him to run for re-election, and he could be especially vulnerable to an independent -- >> wait a minute. seven out of ten includes democrats. >> yeah.

>> not that many in utah, though. >> i think he can still -- >> it's like 30%. >> he can still get more than half of the republicans by my math. >> but this is proposing that an independent enter the race. >> i know that's what they're pushing but i just saw the math you gave me. 35% of this country likes trump, but that's like 80% of the republican self-identified voters. so you got to do the math. i'm tough. >> france. do you want a scary election? we now have four candidates within just a few points of one another. >> who's going to win? >> they don't know. >> who do you know? >> listen, i think ma shon who is at the top of heap. the real nightmare scenario is if you have meller shon and le pen facing off against one another. in that case, all heck is -- >> a communist and a nationalist. don't ask me who i'm for. thank you. it's politically incorrect to give either answer. thank you. when we return, let me finish

tonight with bill o'reilly. you're watching "hardball," where the action is. (de♪p breath) (phone ringing) they'll call back. no one knows your ford better than ford and ford service. right now, during the big tire event, get a $140 rebate by mail, on four select tires. ♪

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let me finish tonight with bill o'reilly. i'm not critic of the media. the reason is i'm in the media. depending on the source, i might even be part of the mainstream media. it's for this reason i don't think it's my part to be criticizing someone else in the media. i don't know about you but i don't like reading in the sports pages, for example, about some player talking down another player. there's something cheap about it. the people on the field should stay there and let the people up in the press box do the score

keeping and the color. so i've avoided getting involved in discussions about other people who talk about or write about politics. i think we should keep our eyes looking forward and not only those to the left or right of us. but this story tonight, the forced departure of bill o'reilly, is a big one, and i can't think of a person watching right now who doesn't have a strong opinion on the subject. what grabs me about this story is i may have said earlier in the program is the corporate decision here. in the end, people like us come to you on air because of corporate decisions. they hire. they renew. they fire. the 21st century fox that they made the decision they announced today is a very big deal. they didn't make it because of ratings. they did it despite ratings, and that means they paid a cost for their decision, at least in the short run. they made the choice they did because the stories that made it to the newspapers about mr. o'reilly struck the reader as wrong, wrong for the person, and wrong for that corporation. that 21st century fox acted as it did today will strike most of

you as right. it's not about some people being bad and others good, it's about certainly behavior violating basic human decency and our need as a society to say so, to judge so, to act so. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "all in" with chris hayes starts right now. tonight on "all in." >> the spin stops right here. >> the end of an era. >> cut his mike. i'm not going to dress you down anymore. >> bill o'reilly out at fox news. >> it's not a traditional america anymore. >> why now after 20 controversy-filled years? what this means for the president who spoke out for o'reilly. >> i bought you so many have nil la milkshakes, you owe me. >> and how this could change the american political landscape forever. >> plus new international concerns about the president's misplaced armada. >> we are sending an armada, very powerful. republicans enter the spin